Unfair Racial Profiling or Just Being Cautious?

Good morning, and Happy Tuesday peeps!  How are you?  Great, I hope.  Being back to work after vacation is killing me already.... I work for a law firm in the banking and finance dept. in downtown Houston and we have several closings going on all at once - which means early early mornings and extra late nights for me.  I was here until after 9 last night and started my day here at 7 a.m.... sigh.... like I said - extra lonngggg days.  :(

Anywho - regarding the title of my post....like I said, I work in downtown Houston and it was after 9 p.m. and clearly after dark and I was ALONE walking across the street from my building to the parking garage to my car.  As I was approaching the outside of the area that leads to the parking garage, which by the way, you have to have a key for, there was a big tall black guy carrying a gym bag and earphones in his ear talking with someone.  I don't really know why he scared me SO bad last night, but as I got to the key pad to get into the building, he was closing in on the same area.  Out of fear, I immediately scanned my card, jumped in the building and pulled the door closed behind me fast.  

Once inside, I hit the elevator button and looked at the door - he had a key card and was sighing a bit as he dug it out to get into the same building.... *whew*...  Once I noticed he also had a key card, I relaxed and held the elevator for him.  However, he said no worries that he was catching a different one instead.  So I got off the elevator and RAN to my car and got in and locked the doors.  I had to leave out of a different exit because of the after 9 p.m. issue.  As I pulled up and stopped at the light, I looked to my right and there he was in his car with the window rolled down and he smiled and waved.  So I rolled my window down and apologized for my hastiness of locking him out and told him it truly was nothing personal, but I was alone and afraid that time of night going to my car.  

He was very nice and said he completely understood and not to worry and that was the exact reason he had chosen to take the other elevator, so that he wouldn't make me more nervous and afraid.  He also proceeded to tell me that he is the CVS manager across the street and had just gotten off work and changed clothes and was on his way to the gym.  (Which I WILL be checking his story out about the manager part)  Anyway, I was in tears all the way home and very anxious all night to say the least.  A part of me felt VERY bad for profiling him unjustly (though his color was of no concern to me - I would have done the same thing if he had been a big tall white guy), and the other part of me kept kicking myself telling me that I should never have even rolled down my car window to talk to him as he could have pulled out a gun and shot me right there on the spot! 

So... what do you think?  Unfair profiling on my part, or valid concern and being cautious since you never know nowadays in this world we live in?  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  Please leave a comment telling me what you think.  However, as our department is now getting into our most busy season of the year, I am off to find some pepper spray just to play it safe.....

In the meantime, I am dreaming of days like this:

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! :)

Lots of love and hugs,